When Mary Darnall’s son Asher was little, doctors told her to expect limits — few words, persistent stimming and a lifetime of therapies that might help but wouldn’t heal.

She was repeatedly told to adhere to gluten-, dairy- and soy-free diets.

None of it touched the root of what was happening.

“He was still so sick,” she said. “And nobody could tell me why.”

The Buckeye-based nutritional therapist and licensed esthetician, known online as “The Healing Cave Lady,” found Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride’s YouTube account.

Campbell-McBride’s Gut and Psychology Syndrome diet — GAPS — was almost primitive: bone broth simmering for days, juicing, herbs, ginger, garlic and chicken feet in the pot.

“I felt like a cave lady,” she said with a laugh.

“I lived in my kitchen. Everything was from scratch. Everything was traditional.”

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However, within six months, Asher went from 10 words to thousands, surprising his applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapists. She began hosting classes in her home, where attendees learned the basics and watched their family members’ symptoms ease.

“I wasn’t licensed in anything,” she said. “I was just a mom learning everything I could.”

Eventually, she quit her modeling job, earned her nutritional therapy certification and attended medical conferences. Word spread, and there were waitlists for her events.

“I was repeating myself so much I started recording classes and putting them online for free,” she said.

Darnall encouraged folks to identify the root cause and heal the gut to reduce inflammation. She recalled a woman with Parkinson’s. Testing revealed severe gluten reactivity.

“She had celiac,” Darnall said. “Once she removed gluten, the symptoms they thought were Parkinson’s disappeared.”

She remembers a pastor’s wife whose young son was wrapped in bandages for bloody eczema.

“I told her, ‘If you’re all in, in six months you won’t remember this horror.’ And she didn’t. His skin was perfect.”

Darnall’s health journey

Darnall’s experience was just as brutal, she said. While living in Oregon, she battled black mold exposure, Lyme disease, chronic angioedema, rashes that sealed her eyes shut and shingles 12 times.

Urgent care doctors told her it looked like cancer. She moved to Arizona in 2020 and began to heal — until a fuzzy Disney sleeper sprayed with flame retardants triggered a full-body reaction.

“I realized I didn’t even feel safe buying clothes,” Darnall said.

Next was an organic clothing line created with toxin-free fabrics.

“People don’t realize they’re reacting to their sheets, their pajamas, their pillows,” she said. “If a safer option doesn’t exist, I want to create it.”

Skin was up next. After years of painful rashes, she stopped using soap.

“Soap was made for oil workers,” she said. “It strips your barrier, traps toxins, and then the cosmetic industry sells you 25 products to fix what the soap destroyed.”

She became a holistic esthetician and created an oil-based skincare line built around jojoba and barrier repair.

“I’m almost 45 — no Botox, no injections and no wrinkles,” she said. “I’m nourishing the skin instead of stripping it.”

Her work is fueled by faith. She became a Christian in 2006 and described her relationship with God as practical and profound.

She remembers being in the hospital after an emergency C-section, debating whether to give her newborn the vitamin K shot.

“God said, ‘Do not inject that kid with anything,’” she said.

When the doctor insisted the shot was necessary for circumcision, she suddenly asked a question she had never researched: If babies have 100% of their vitamin K by day three, and we’re at day seven, wouldn’t giving the shot now increase the risk of stroke?

The doctor checked, and she was right, she said.

“My husband looked at me like, ‘Where did that come from?’” she recalled. “I said, ‘I have no idea. It had to be God.’”

Darnall gives free advice via YouTube because she would “never want to waste a penny of someone’s hard-earned money.”

“I only share what I absolutely love,” Darnall said. “Seeing someone heal. There’s nothing like it. That joy is worth more than anything.”

Darnall now pitches Hempsolv, which she co-founded with Dan Bruce, a health-products veteran. Its products have not been approved by the FDA.

“We created Hempsolv for people who are exhausted by wellness,” Darnall said. “They have drawers full of products, conflicting advice coming from every direction, and no idea what is actually helping. We wanted to cut through the noise and create clean, focused formulas that make sense.”

The company uses hemp cannabinoids, including CBD, CBN and CBG, and raw hemp powder in select formulas.

The company claims Hempsolv helps with rest, physical stress, histamine balance and skin issues, among other problems.

“People can tell when you are just selling something,” she said.

“If I would not use it, recommend it or stand behind it, then it is not worth attaching my name to it.”